1. Field of the Invention
Methods and apparatuses consistent with the present invention relate to providing information through a network, and more particularly, to displaying information provided through a network by manipulating the appearance of an application.
2. Description of the Related Art
A change from a related art passive information exchange method of responding to an information request from a user to technologies proposed with a trend of Web 2.0 such as Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication (RSS), Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX), and Wild services shows that user attention has become focused on active participation and active interaction. In addition, a personalized page provided from various related art web pages or a customizing technology such as a Graphical User Interface (GUI) widget is an example that reflects a desire of a user who wants to be provided with information processed only for the user. This method of providing information is mainly classified into a method using a typical web browser and a method using an additional web application.
In order to check information desired by a user in a related art information acquisition method, the user has to visit a web site providing the information or execute an additional web application. When information is provided through a web browser and the information includes time-dependent factors that vary according to time, the user must inconveniently visit a corresponding web site every time and check content in order to obtain updated information. In addition, when information is provided through an additional web application, due to space occupied by the additional application, there is an inconvenience of hiding a screen of a basic application.
FIG. 1 is a view showing a method of providing live information such as weather on a part of a screen of a related art web browser. When it is assumed that a region where a user currently lives is Seoul and the user is provided with weather information on Seoul on a part 101 of a particular web site, in order for the user to check the weather in the morning, the user has to visit the web site. In addition, in order to check for a change in weather information in the afternoon, the user has to visit the same web site again. In the above example, if, instead of the weather, the provided information is stock price information which changes in units of a minute, then in order to obtain updated information, the user has to visit a corresponding web site more frequently and the time interval decreases.
FIG. 2 is a view showing a method of providing weather information which periodically changes from a related art web application. The user sets a region on which weather information is to be obtained and periodically receives the information through a web application such as a Web widget. This application reduces the inconvenience of visiting a corresponding web page every time as in the method using the web browser shown in FIG. 1. However, there still is the inconvenience of having to execute an additional web application or hide a screen of a basic application of the user due to additional screen occupation.
FIG. 3 is a view showing a method of setting the appearance of a related art web application. In the related art, in association with appearance setting of the web application, changes in basic characteristics (for example, opacity or a position of a window) of an application are provided as a common function. Therefore, there is inconvenience in that a flexible link with external data is difficult and functions of providing information changed by the flexible link cannot be set together.
As described above, in the method of acquiring information through a network, particularly, in the method using a web browser, although the need for visiting the weather service in order to check weather decreases, the need for visiting a web site that provides the weather information still exists. In addition, in consideration of a general electronic appliance such as an Internet protocol television (IPTV) connected through a network, instead of in a related art personal computer (PC)-based environment, the inconvenience increases. Similarly, in the method using a web application, there is a problem in that an additional application is executed or a part of a screen of a basic application is hidden. In consideration of the aforementioned problems, a method of periodically requesting information designated by a user in advance and visually providing the information to the user, without allocating an additional application such as a web browser or a screen, is needed. In addition, functions of setting and managing correspondence relations between the information and the appearances of applications generated by an application engine are required.